Untruth does not become truth because of purity of
motive. Just as a moneyed man is said to have but one eye for watching
things, there is only one path of truth. Likewise, there are many
paths of untruth, in the same way that a thief has as many as four
eyes, as the saying goes. A person lost in this mazy network of paths
is ruined and, if he happens to be a guardian or trustee, he also
ruins the person whose interests he is appointed to protect.

The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi -Vol. XV p.
23, 17-9-1918

Ignorance is also a kind of darkness, a species of un¬truth. It
cannot, therefore, withstand knowledge or truth.

The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi -Vol. XVI, p., 87, 3-9-1918

My desire is to close this life searching for truth, acting truth
and thinking truth and that alone, and I request the blessings of
the nation that that desire of mine may be fulfilled.

The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi -Vol. XVI, p. 175, 28-9-1919

Truth has no form. Therefore everyone will form such an idea or image
of truth as appeals to him, and there will be as many images of truth
as there are men These will all be true as long as they last. For
they enable a man to obtain everything he wants. As a matter of fact
names such as Brahma, Vishnu, Ishvara, Bhagavan are either meaningless
or at least not significant enough, whereas Satya (Truth) is the perfect
name for God. If one says he will die for God's sake, he cannot make
plain to others what he means, and people who hear him say so will
hardly understand it. On the other hand one who says he will die for
truth knows what he means, and his words will be generally understood
by those who hear him.

The Diary of Mahadev Desai, Vol. I, p. 120, 20-5-1932

I feel that whilst we should spare evil-doers, we dare not be sparing
in our condemnation of evil. Perfect gentleness is not inconsistent
with clearest possible denunciation of what one knows to be evil,
so long as that knowledge persists; and there would need to be no
cause for regret later if our knowledge of the past was found to be
a great error of judgment. In our endeavour to approach absolute truth
we shall always have to be content with relative truth from time to
time, the relative at each stage being for us as good as the absolute.
It can be easily demonstrated that there would be no progress if there
was no such confidence in oneself. Of course our language would be
one of caution and hesitation if we had any doubt about the correctness
of our position.

The Diary of Mahadev Desai, Vol. I, p. 129, 25-5-1932

One who resorts to untruth with any end in view whatsoever and is
full of likes and dislikes can never attain the Supreme.

The Diary of Mahadev Desai, I, p. 250, 24-7-1932

To tread the path of truth implies an active life in the world of
men. In the absence of such activity, there is no occasion for either
pursuing or swerving from truth. The Gita has made it clear that a
man cannot remain inactive even for a single moment. The differ¬ence
between one who is a devotee of God and another who is not is that
the former is active in the service of others, never gives up truth
in the midst of activity and gradually overcomes his likes and dislikes,
while the other is active for selfish reasons, and has no scruples
whatever as regards the means he employs in order to achieve his selfish
ends. This world is not something evil in itself, for only an active
life in the world can help us to attain the goal of God-realization.
This activity must be directed to the good of others. Selfish activity
is fit only to be condemned and should be given up.

The Diary of Mahadev Desai, Vol. I p. 251, 24-7-1932

The truth, where it is relevant, must be told at any cost.

Selected Letters-I, p. 45

A lover of truth entertains only righteous wishes which are bound
to be fulfilled. Our prayers bear fruit for the world to the extent
that our soul is grounded in Truth. The universe is not different
from us, and we are not different from the universe.

Selected Letters-I, p. 55

Non-violence and truth are convertible terms. This seems to be the
idea behind the saying, "One must speak truth, truth that is
agreeable." That is genuine truth which causes no pain, for that
alone is non-violent. Truth may sound harsh but it can never result
in suffering. Our employment of truth may offend the other person,
but his conscience will tell him that what was said about him was
true and was said with the best of motives. We are here interpreting
truth in its widest connotation. Truth does not mean merely being
truthful in speech; the term "truth" means exactly the same
thing as it does in the sutra about Brahma alone being true. The English
word "truth" also carries the same meaning.

Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. XIV p. 97, 22-11-1917

Truth and non-violence are the same thing. The one includes the other.
If anyone vowed to non-violence speaks or acts untruth, he will be
violating his vow. If a man dedicated to truth commits violence, he
will sacrifice truth. Even if a man refuses to reply, out of fear,
he will be violating the vow of non-violence.

Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. XIV, p. 157, 17-2-1918

You cannot teach Ahimsa to a man who cannot kill. You cannot make
a dumb man appreciate the beauty and the merit of silence. Although
I know that silence is most excellent, I do not hesitate to take means
that would enable the dumb man to regain his speech. I do not believe
in any Government,—but Parliamentary Government is perhaps better
than capricious rule.

Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. XIV P- 444, 22-6-1918

It is my practice of Ahimsa and failure to get our people even to
understand the first principles of Ahimsa that have led to the discovery
that all killing is not himsa, that, sometimes, practice of Ahimsa
may even necessitate killing and that we as a nation have lost the
true power of killing. It is clear that he who has lost the power
to kill cannot practise non-killing. Ahimsa is a renunciation of the
highest type. A weak and an effeminate nation cannot perform this
grand act of renunciation, even as a mouse cannot be properly said
to renounce the power of killing a cat. It may look terrible but it
is true that we must by well-sustained, conscious effort, regain this
power, and, then, if we can only do so, deliver the world from its
travail of himsa by a continuous abdication of this power. I cannot
describe to you in sufficiently telling language the grief I often
used to feel as I watched my failure to carry conviction about Ahimsa
even to the members of the Ashram. Not that they were unwilling listeners,
but I could perceive, as I now think plainly, that they had not the
capacity for apprehending the truth. It was like singing the finest
music to ears untuned to any music. But today practically everyone
at the Ashram understands it, and is aglow with the expectation that
Ahimsa is a renunciation out of strength and not out of weakness.
It is not possible to make any distinction between organized warfare
and individual fighting. There must be an organized opposition and
therefore even organized bloodshed, say, in the case of bandits. The
noblest warrior is he who stands fearless in the face of immense odds.
He then feels not the power to kill, but he is supremely triumphant
in the knowledge that he has the willingness to die when by taking
to his heels he might easily have saved his life. I do believe that
we shall have to teach our children the art of self-defence.

Collected, Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. XIV P- 485, 17-7-1918

I am more and more becoming convinced of the correctness of the non-violence
doctrine. The greater the possession of brute force, the greater coward
does the possessor become.

Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. XVI, p. 58, 22-8-1919

We should remain non-violent, unmindful of whether we succeed or fail
in our undertaking. This is the only natural way of demonstrating
the principle of non-violence. It would be more correct to say that
the result of Ahimsa is always good. Such being our firm faith, we
are not concerned whether our efforts are crowned with success today
or years later.

Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. XXIV p. 273, 21-6-1924

It is one's duty to say only that which, after a painstaking inquiry,
one has come to regard as the truth, even if the world considers it
to be an error. In no other way can one become fearless. I cannot
consider anything dearer to me than moksha. Yet even that moksha I
would renounce if it were to conflict with truth and non-violence.

Collected Works Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. XXV P- 127, 2-8-1924

The only way to conquer violence is through non¬violence pure
and undefiled. I have said also that every violent act, word and even
thought interferes with the progress of non-violent action. If in
spite of such repeated warnings, people will resort to violence, I
must own responsibility save such as inevitably attaches to every
human being for the acts of every other human being. But the question
of responsibility apart, I dare not postpone action on any cause whatsoever
if non-violence is the force the seers of the world have claimed it
to be and if I am not to belie my own extensive experience of its
working.

Famous Letters of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 74

There is nothing wrong in an ordinary man wanting God to punish the
wrongdoer. Non-violence is a new thing. It would be wrong for a non-violent
man to call down the wrath of Gods or man. But a non-violent man must
not see anything wrong in a persecuted man retaliating and seeking
the assistance of others.